hypercars – All about car

A picture taken on September 28, 2019 at the Bonmont Abbey in Cheserex, western Switzerland shows a 2010 Bugatti Veyron EB 16.4 Coupe model car (R) and a 2011 Aston Martin One-77 Coupe model car during an auction preview by sales house Bonhams of sport cars belonging to the son of the Equatorial Guineas President.Fabrice Coffrini / Getty Not all politicians find themselves busy moving the levers of power and arguing with their opposition party. Some, like the vice-president of Equatorial Guinea, spend their time collecting a fleet of hypercars.Trouble is, at least in this instance, they were all confiscated by Swiss authorities three years ago after a money-laundering investigation.Yesterday, London-based Bonhams auctioned them all. Obey the law, kids, or you might lose your toys.On the block were some of the rarest pieces of metal ever to dent the worlds racetracks and roadways. An extraordinary convertible version of the already-rare Lamborghini Veneno, in white-on-tan Dubai spec, sold for a gob-smacking $11,049,911 including buyers premium. Interested in a one-of-six Koenigsegg One:1 with only 597 km on the clock? You would have had to bring $6,138,839 to walk away with the example at this auction. A 2011 Aston Martin One-77, number 35 of 77 built, went under the hammer for just over $2 million.The list goes on, reading like a whos-who of exotic machinery. A Ferrari Enzo, the sheeps-head-ugly super car from 2003, withdrew $4,143,716 from the bank account of a person who is presumably not blessed with the gift of sight.Despite having covered just 21 km in its sixteen years on this planet, records show it recently underwent a service costing $105,393.26, meaning it cost about five thousand dollars a kilometre to operate, not counting other maintenance and the initial purchase price. Your authors Dodge Charger is not as spendy. If it simply was a yellow Ferrari the buyer wanted, they should have held out for the 2015 LaFerrari that was also at this auction. It sold for a hair under $3 million, meaning the Enzo buyer could have saved $1.1 million and a trip to the eye doctor. Compared to the Enzo, though, the LaFerrari was admittedly a high-mileage car, with 894 km under its stylish Italian loafers.Cops in Geneva seized the fleet from an airport cargo area 2016 after criminal proceedings were opened against Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, the son of the central African nations leader. Earlier this year, Swiss prosecutors said they closed a money-laundering investigation against Obiang, citing an arrangement to fund programs in Equatorial Guinea with proceeds from the sale of these
Origin: Hypercars seized from politician net CDN$35.9 million at auction

Horacio Pagani, the founder of Italy’s most extravagant hypercar maker, has confirmed that a fully electric hypercar is in the works – but the highly regarded V12 engine will stick around for some time. Pagani is a man who has always found it difficult to say no to his customers. His company’s first hypercar, the Zonda, had its retirement delayed for years because affluent buyers, including Lewis Hamilton, begged for the chance to buy one. Now we’re facing what is meant to be the last version of the Huayra, the BC Roadster, although Pagani himself admits that plan may slip. “It is scheduled to be the last production model,” he told Autocar. “But I am also listening to some private collectors who are asking maybe for a one-off or a limited edition, which will probably extend the lifespan a little more.” Pagani remains ultra-exclusive even by the standards of Italian hypercar makers, producing around 40 cars a year. But the company is profitable and has always taken a long-term approach to planning, with Pagani saying that work is well advanced on the Huayra’s replacement – known internally as the C10 – ahead of a launch scheduled for 2022. “This next model will have a similar philosophy. It will have a traditional combustion engine, a new-generation Mercedes-AMG V12 twin-turbo,” he said. “We have a very close relationship with Mercedes already and this new V12 engine will be homologated until 2026.” Pagani is also working on an EV that will be developed from the same core architecture as the conventional hypercar. “The C10 will have a regular V12 but, at the same time, there will be a full-electric vehicle,” he said. “It is not going to be exactly the same platform. It will be modified.” Horacio Pagani said the company’s changing customer base has been integral to the move to electrification, as well as environmental legislation. “At the beginning, our clients tended to be car collectors in Europe in their 50s or above,” he said. “Now the average age has dropped significantly and we have a lot of younger buyers in Asia Pacific and also in North America and Silicon Valley.” Beyond 2025, Horacio Pagani said, the brand may do something radically different and he even admitted that plans for an SUV have been considered. He said: “If I had to come up with a Pagani SUV, it would need to have a price tag of €3 million or above to be in line with our current strategy. We don’t know if there is any market for such a product, but there could not be any compromise. If there is a Pagani badge on a vehicle, it must be the highest quality. But it is something that has been discussed a number of times with collectors. “We would access the technology of Mercedes-Benz because they produce SUVs, and because of the close relationship we enjoy, we could maybe use the big SUV platform. It’s something that has been in the back of my mind, but the journey from concept to reality for anything like that is a long
Origin: Pagani CEO: “We will build V12 hypercars until 2026”